9.10.2012

We hope you had a great weekend filled with Magic the Gathering games and epic plays, perhaps with an FNM event on Friday followed up with the Magic Celebration 2012 on Saturday. The FNM promo this month is Lingering Souls, and we are looking for two of these, so drop us a line here, and we'll talk. How was your Magic Celebration event? At OMG! Games in Barrie where there was an excellent turn-out of almost 50 players, hurricane-like weather knocked the power out at the store for less than 10 minutes, but everyone kept calm and played on. Some rather disturbing news on the forums where we've heard some Local Gaming Stores were charging for this free event - if this was your case, contact Wizards of the Coast, and talk to the folks looking after organised play.

Anywhoos - onto today's Return to Ravnica Spoilers and Previews !

Desecration Demon, 2bbCreature - Demon, RareFlyingAt the beginning of each combat, any opponent may sacrifice a creature. If a player does, tap Desecration Demon and put a +1/+1 counter on it.6/6

This was a StarCity Games preview by Evan Erwin on the Magic Show (gawd we miss regulary scheduled Magic Shows). This is a fatty and a menace once it hits the table. It may be OK should you have cheap tokens to sac, but otherwise things could get ugly. Casual players will definitely want this and it may likely see constructed play as a nice finisher. Edit - to fe-addict comment below - appoligies, we should have made that more clear. We were speaking from the point of the opponent facing this - we would be scared as heck seeing this across the table.

This was a Magic Friends (Italian MTG site) preview. We can see some players pairing this up with Arbor Elf to untap that enchanted land to get another card in their hand. Mono-black control players will evaluate this for inclusion in standard decks and in limited, this card may be able to push the game in your favour unless they have an answer (like Abrupt Decay or Ghost Quarter).

~Chaos Imps, 4rrCreature - Imp, RareFlyingUnleash (You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It can't block as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.)Chaos Imps has trample as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.6/5

This Radkos fatty could get a bit scary as it has evasion and conditional trample. We almost gave up on the Unleash mechanic as being somewhat mediocre but we rather like this one.

~Loxodon Smiter, 1gwCreature - Elephant Soldier, RareLoxodon Smiter can't be countered.If a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard Loxodon Smiter, put it onto the battlefield instead of putting it into your graveyard.4/4

A 4/4 for three mana ain't ever a bad thing, even with the mixed mana cost. The other ability may be somewhat irrelevant in the standard environment, so for the moment, until the rest of the Return to Ravnica set is spoiled, this Loxy is just vanilla.

A bit ho-hum. To discard an instant or sorcery, hopefull with flashback may be alright but still a high price to get this built into a proper threat on the game table, but we would rather pick other spells for the Izzet 2-drop spot. Edit - see Anon comment below for a good argument to build with this card.

Some EDH / Commander players may want to consider this, but we have yet to see how this could rock our world for standard constructed. Cloudshift a Tree of Redemption will move you up 26 life and then go ultimate with Ajani, Caller of the Pride to puke out a truckload of kittehs sounds epic for casual kitchen table shenanigans, but we are no all that impressed with this unless there's another forthcoming RTR card which will make this shine.~We suggest you check out MTG Mint Card who are now taking pre-orders for Return to Ravnica.

Desecration Demon "It may be OK should you have cheap tokens to sac, but otherwise things could get ugly. "

Ummm, when you say 'you' do you mean 'you' the player or 'you' the person facing this thing? Because I automatically thought you mean the player, which in that case makes little sense. The player CAN NOT sac his own creatures to make this thing stronger, ONLY the opponent can do that in order to keep it from attacking.

To me it is an excellent example of a card that plays mind games with the opponent. He has an option to negate it's possibility to attack him by sacrificing a creature, this means he is going to hesitate before using that removal spell he would have no problem casting if this was any other 6/6 like a titan. I love cards that give an opponent options to 'negate' it's threat with a cost, it is a win win situation to me, even better if we get some nice instant speed untap effects going with him.

Also, it's an effective counter-counter spell. Granted, counter is not going to be as strong as it used to be, but being able to put your otherwise-countered spell to use in response to someone countering it is a phenomenal use for this guy.

Nivmagus Elemental say exile an instant or sorcery "you control" so you have to have cast the spell and then exile it from the stack. With free spells 'read phyrexian' leaving us this seem a high price especially when you can't flashback the spell you exiled in stead of discard.

Does screw with counterspells though. Counter my spell? I will exile it for value instead. Please say they print a 'gain control of target instant spell'

i,personally, think the demon will be crap to go up against and will be a first pick in a draft. i thing that the elemental will be the best of the mono-hybrid mana cards, because it is basically a delver with 1 extra toughness and the ability to pump its self however many times it want, whenever it wants. looking forward to building around it!!!